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5 Nov 2013

Crocs, Hippos & Mud Wrestling

Malawi:
Liwonde National Park

When compared with its neighbours,
Malawi is not an obvious destination for a big game safari. But Liwonde National Park, nestled on the
east bank of the River Shire, just to the south of Lake Malawi, is an often
overlooked gem. This park has two claims
to fame that we are aware of. Firstly,
it was along this shoreline that deserters from David Livingstone’s final
expedition falsely claimed that Livingstone had been attacked and killed by
local tribes. It was this report, sent
back to London via Zanzibar, which sparked frenzied debate for years to come
about whether Livingstone was alive or dead.
Secondly, J.R.R. Tolkien apparently visited this region before writing The
Hobbit and was so taken with the stunning landscape that “the Shire” in his book was inspired by this original namesake.

The park fees are a refreshing change
from those further west – just $10 per person per day and $3 for Tonka. Once again, camping gave us the option to
gate-crash far more exclusive accommodation than we would otherwise be able to
frequent. In this case it was the rather
classy *Mvuu Camp*, its cluster of
safari style tents positioned along the riverbank. These are occupied by fly in tourists at
nearly $500 per night, and so it was immensely satisfying to pay our $15 each
and park Tonka almost alongside them.

In a well-rehearsed routine, we
quickly changed into our least dusty clothes and swaggered into the lodge
bar. And so our metamorphosis from road
weary vagrants to civilised tourists was complete. As the sun sank over the far bank of the Shire,
we watched giant monitor lizards (about 1.5m long) scurry around in the
twilight.

Dinner back at the campsite was
interrupted by a sudden and violent rainstorm, during which huge clouds were
illuminated like Chinese lanterns by great flashes of lightening within. Clutching our plates we dashed up into the
tent, while the rain hammered deafeningly on the flysheet, finally giving way to
the nocturnal rumblings of a pod of hippos close to the camp.

The next day dawned clear and later
than afternoon we joined a bout trip for the best views of the wildlife. From here we could really appreciate how the
riverbanks and shallows team with fauna.
There are hundreds of species of birds in the park and we could only
recognise a handful of them – several species of Kingfisher, heron, and
the ubiquitous African Fish Eagle.

Unmistakable
though are the rivers heavyweight residents. Great pods of hippos lie like submerged
boulders, only their nostrils and porcine-like eyes exposed. Occasionally their massive heads rise up and
hinge open 180 degrees in their trademark yawn.

Equally intimidating are the mega crocodiles
that laze on the bank, totally motionless with their mouths wide open. Presumably they lie like this to be able to
snap their jaws down on any unsuspecting passer-by. This rather optimistic posture did remind us
of a popular Chinese proverb we heard when travelling there – “A peasant has to
stand on a hillside for a very long time with his mouth open before a roast
duck flies in.” Certainly they are far
more lethal when they are concealed in the water. Some of these monsters weigh in at 1,000kg
and one was pointed out to us that had allegedly been responsible for at least
one missing local. How Livingstone explored
these shores on foot and survived for so long is nothing short of
miraculous.

It was also on this boat trip that
we became acquainted with our carbon copies – Jonathan (a Brit) and his Danish
wife of one and a half years Anne-Sophie.
Like us, they were in the middle of driving a loop from South Africa to
Uganda and back. We got on very well
with them and decided to exit the park together the next morning. This collaboration turned out to be a good
thing – over the last two days a section of the road had turned into a gloopy
swamp of the dreaded black cotton soil.
Bravely going first, Jonathan’s Toyota Fortuner tried to plough through
but quickly bogged down, listing heavily to one side.

Rather than go in after them, we
unravelled our steal cable and slowly winched them out. Finding an alternative way out through the
thick bush, we finally emerged near the park gates. Here there is one last point of interest to
visit. Peering into the dim, hollow
trunk of a baobab tree, a heap of human bones is just visible. These are the remains of a number of leprosy victims
who were traditionally “buried” in this way.
Clearing the east gate, we bid farewell to Jonathan and Anne-Sophie and headed
for our next destination, the Mulanje Massif on the Malawi/Mozambique border.

1 comment:

Great to read through all your adventures. We enjoyed Malawi last year as well even though it is by far the poorest African country we've been to. Just for info, the crocodiles have their mouth open to help them to cool down...it's their form of AC....although should something fly in, I'm sure they wouldn't object :-). Keep the stories coming!